“With respect to the two words “general welfare,” I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. If the words obtained so readily a place in the “Articles of Confederation,” and received so little notice in their admission into the present Constitution, and retained for so long a time a silent place in both, the fairest explanation is, that the words, in the alternative of meaning nothing or meaning everything, had the former meaning taken for granted.”

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, elaborated upon this limitation in a letter to James Robertson. “We must confine ourselves to the powers described in the Constitution, and the moment we pass it, we take an arbitrary stride towards a despotic Government.”

James Jackson, First Congress, 1st Annals of Congress, 489 “ The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”

James Madison, speech in the House of Representatives, January 10, 1794 “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated.”

Thomas Jefferson “The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”

Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188 “And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress ... to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.... “

Samuel Adams Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.